Good morning.
The main Russian source behind Christopher Steele’s dossier on Donald Trump and Moscow has been arrested, the justice department has said.
Igor Danchenko, the analyst who was the chief source behind the explosive allegation that Trump was compromised on a trip to Moscow in November 2013, has been accused of repeatedly lying to the FBI in 2017. The charges come amid an investigation by John Durham, who was appointed by the former president to investigate the origins of the FBI’s investigation into links between the Trump campaign and Russia.
What were the allegations? Danchenko claimed that Trump may have been covertly filmed with sex workers during his Moscow trip, putting him at risk of blackmail.
Is Danchenko the first arrest? No. The analyst is the third person, and second within two months, to face indictment.
What are the charges? The FBI accuses Danchenko of fabricating the conversation understood to be behind the claim that Trump watched sex workers urinate on each other at the Moscow hotel. He is also accused of including information from a Democrat-linked PR executive in the dossier and concealing its source. A lawyer for Danchenko had no immediate comment.
Two killed in shootout on Cancún beach by luxury hotel
Tourists near the Mexican resort city of Cancún fled into a luxury hotel after a gang shooting on the beach erupted on Thursday, killing two men.
State officials described the shooting as a confrontation between drug dealers at the Hyatt Ziva in Puerto Morelos, just south of Cancún. No tourists were seriously hurt or taken hostage, officials said.
Fifteen armed men stormed the beach on Thursday, killing “presumed” drug dealers, local media reported, while the tourists, who had been playing volleyball and swimming, ran into the hotel.
The incident comes just two weeks after a Californian blogger and a German tourist were killed in the nearby beach resort of Tulum during a shootout between suspected gang members.
Telling a New Jersey cop you have Covid could get you 10 years in prison
A woman arrested in New Jersey has been hit with a potentially disastrous terrorism charge after she was accused of coughing “in close proximity” to officers and telling them she had Covid.
Deja Lewis, 28, is one of at least 45 people landed with the charge, which could result in a 10-year prison sentence and leave her with a $150,000 fine – a penalty made available under state of emergency laws.
Are people still being charged? The last pandemic-related terrorism charge was last December, according to the attorney general’s office.
Is New Jersey unique? No – but with nearly four dozen people hit with terrorism charges, it could be the state with the most intense campaign to criminalize threats of Covid transmission.
In other news …
McDonald’s chief executive, Chris Kempczinski, has triggered anger after appearing to blame the parents of two children who were shot dead. In a text exchange with the Chicago mayor, Lori Lightfoot, obtained via a freedom of information request, Kempczinski said: “The parents failed those kids which I know is something you can’t say.”
Natalie Wood was sexually assaulted as a teen by Kirk Douglas, her younger sister has written in a memoir. Lana Wood remembers that her sister and their mother agreed that publicly accusing him would ruin Natalie’s career.
Greece has been accused of the biggest illegal pushback in years after a cargo ship carrying 382 migrants was towed across the seas for four days before the coastguard was forced into a rescue.
Stat of the day: Zillow lost over $300m in recent months
Property website Zillow has been utilizing an algorithm to help it buy and flip properties – only the selling hasn’t gone so well. The site’s home-buying division, Offers, has lost more than $300m in the last few months. After moving the company into the nascent field of “iBuying” in 2018, CEO Richard Barton at one stage aimed to buy 5,000 homes a month by 2024. Instead, Offers will be closed, leaving 2,000 out of work, while 7,000 houses still need to be sold – many at a loss.
Don’t miss this: Andrew Garfield on playing heroic characters, mushroom trips and self-awareness
From a Jesuit priest in Silence to a Seventh-day Adventist in Hacksaw Ridge, Andrew Garfield has almost always found himself playing “heroic, altruistic, champion-of-the-light kinds of characters”. Does any malevolence lurk behind the actor and his string of angelic performances? He’s unsure. “I think we are vastly unknowable unless we meditate 18 hours a day and/or go on mushroom trips to discover all the nooks and crannies of ourselves,” Garfield tells Ryan Gilbey.
Climate check: richest 1% will account for 16% of total emissions by 2030
The CO2 emissions of the world’s richest 1% are set to be 30 times higher than what is compatible with keeping global heating below 1.5C, new research has warned. A group of people smaller in number than the population of Germany are on track to release 70 tonnes of CO2 each per a year – despite personal emissions needing to fall to an average of 2.3 tonnes by 2030.
Last Thing: meet the world’s best Tetris player
It all started when Michael Artiaga, then eight, and his older brother Andy, found their dad’s Nintendo Game Boy on a shelf in his closet full of 1970s video games. After the brothers, who learned to code at the age of five, watched the Classic Tetris world championship on YouTube, they were hooked – and went on to compete against each other for the top prize.
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